


Old Habits Die Hard

by Skullszeyes



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Inspired by Fanart, Izaya is trying to live a different life fic, M/M, Minor Heiwajima Shizuo/Orihara Izaya, Not Beta Read, Office, One Shot, One-Sided Attraction, Orihara Izaya-centric, Paranoia, Past Relationship(s), Secrets, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23842297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes
Summary: Izaya spends his day going to work, grocery shopping, and meeting up with an old friend.
Relationships: Heiwajima Shizuo & Orihara Izaya, Heiwajima Shizuo/Orihara Izaya
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	Old Habits Die Hard

**Author's Note:**

> I had this in my phone for so long, but I was procrastinating, and I was going to make it into a much longer story, but I can't commit to that right now. Maybe some time in the future.
> 
> This is also inspired by fanart. I'm not sure who made it. It's Izaya wearing a grey shirt and pulling off a red tie. :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments and/or kudo's are appreciated.

He had planned his day to go the way that he wanted. He dressed in an orderly fashion. A white shirt with a red tie, both were pressed down the other night after he finished his shower. He looked in the mirror and fixed his hair, and looked for his shoes. He made sure the papers in his briefcase were neat and tidy, and he was able to find what he needed once he headed for work.

Izaya worked at a firm, one he had gotten after leaving Raira High school. He hardly made friends back then, and the ones who stuck to him had lives that Izaya had no interest in stepping into.

This was his life. As simple as he needed it to be, and he walked out of his apartment and headed off to work.

There was nothing special happening today. He had marked down everything he had learned within the firm in case he missed out on something. And if he did, someone would eventually tell him. His co-workers were accessible to him as much as he tried for them. This back and forth relationship helped when he hit a wall, which was rare, and he was a quick learner, so some people were mostly indebted to him than he was to them.

It almost sounded strange as he sauntered down the street. They helped him, but for helping him, they were required to ask him for help and of course that would be for a specific set of rules that he would inevitably give them. It seemed fair on his end, but it’s not like they ever knew that.

Izaya had lived the day over and over again, making sure everything about it was perfect as it can be. The one thing that did end up bothering him was when he turned the corner, and his pleasant demeanor had flattened when he came face-to-face with someone from high school. He despised seeing _friends_ from a time when he’d rather leave them behind.

This, however, was different since he was walking towards the person, hoping that _he_ wouldn’t notice him walking by. Even though a few years have passed, and he was twenty-five years old, trying to live a simple life, instead of who he was as a teenager, he was irritated at the fact that this _monster_ could sniff him out like he had done before.

Izaya held his breath when he walked straight by. The acrid scent of the man’s cigarette wafted in the area as he hurried to the end of the street. He thought he was good, at least until he glanced back then side stepped behind a group of people who were watching the chaos that was brewing.

He looked over their shoulders and arched a brow at the flying stands and destroyed food. The scent shifted to something burning as the man started yelling, his anger was infamous as it had been when he was a teenager.

Izaya was almost curious to know what set him off, but as he turned away from the gawking crowd, and was sauntering down the street. He had a somewhat satisfied feeling that it was because of him that the _monster_ reacted in such a way. He was a little delayed, but at least some things haven’t changed.

He reached the firm in under fifteen minutes, climbed the stairs, greeted a few of his employees who recognized him before he headed toward the office where the cubicles were. He made sure his demeanor was passive as it could be, and that what he’d end up feeling wouldn’t deter others from what he was truly thinking.

He placed his briefcase down on the floor once he sat down on his chair. He turned on his computer, then took out a few papers from inside the briefcase and set them down in a neat pile.

Throughout the day, he spent his time speaking to his coworkers, picking up a styrofoam cup and pouring both coffee, cream, and sugar before stirring it together while he eavesdropped on a group of people sitting at the table not too far away from him.

It wasn’t anything of interest, mostly relationship and family issues, some of these people were terrible to one another, not like Izaya bothered to join in with their criticism. He was a good worker, he strived to be, and he would not lower himself to their halfwitted comments.

By the time the day ended, Izaya sparked a cigarette outside, he went home, tucked everything he had brought to work away, and even took off his clothes, stepped into the shower, and after he was finished, he dressed in dark pants and a black v-neck t-shirt.

He still needed a bit of groceries, and when he grabbed his coat from his closet and pulled it on, he felt a little better about his day. It took about twenty minutes to get to a grocery store, and he was standing in front of something he didn’t like looking at.

Izaya scowled down at the dead packaged fish, and then shivered at their eyes after poking one. He seen a cluster of dead fish once, took a few pictures, then craved some which did not help with his disgust. Maybe he should delete those pictures.

After he was finished grabbing a few things, his phone was ringing after he sparked another cigarette. It was his sisters, and he talked to them most of the way home, then he put away his groceries. He looked out the window of his apartment, the type of building that he wouldn’t have been able to procure, but that didn’t matter all that much to him.

Izaya sat in his chair, playing with a switchblade he bought. Once he simply wanted to hold it, after awhile, he used it for protection if he ever needed it. Not many people bothered him anyways.

His phone started ringing again. He looked at the caller ID, and stared at it until it stopped ringing. His heart picked up and he was out of his chair, sauntering across his apartment, and walking out. He played with his knife as he walked down the street, then found an abandoned building which he knew how to open, and climbed the stairs to the roof.

The city was beautiful at night. Majestic. Serene. Chaotic under the glittering lights and the oblivious nature of the people who roamed its streets. For the third time today, he sparked another cigarette and heard the door behind him slam open.

“Shizu-chan,” Izaya said, raising his hand, cigarette sitting between his fingers, “would you like a drag, or shall we start whatever it is you want, but I hope you know that I’m going to end up winning.”

“I’ve been looking for you,” Shizuo said, a growl in the back of his throat as he walked over to Izaya and plucked the cigarette from his fingers.

“I heard nothing from you, so I highly doubt that.”

“I got the number from Shinra, who hasn’t heard from you either.”

Izaya rolled his eyes. “We both know he doesn’t engage in conversations when it has nothing to do with Celty, so let’s not play dumb, Shizu-chan.” He turned around and leaned his back against the railing. “What is it that you want so badly?”

He looked the same from high school. A mop of dyed blonde hair that Izaya could probably smell if he got close enough, and the irritated look that seemed the norm whenever Izaya pissed him off between classes. He had this sort of familiar attractive quality that Izaya liked when he was younger and seemed to have never shed as a twenty-six year old... _bartender_.

“We both fell from what I consider a social ladder—”

Shizuo scowled. “Unlikely, Izaya.”

“I had friends—”

“They weren’t friends, you and I know that.”

All this time Izaya had tried to change who he was since high school. The innate feeling of wanting less of his own skill. Maybe it also had to do with Shinra, then later feeling abandoned by his only friend, and not being able to make more. He disliked that quality of humans who couldn’t sustain such a connection before it crumbled.

Izaya took out his switchblade while Shizuo took the last drag of the cigarette and flicked it off the railing past Izaya’s head. “What do you want, Shizuo? I tried living what you consider a _passive_ life, having idle conversation with people I have no care for, then walking home like any other person trying to live a simple life.”

“You can’t live a _simple_ life,” Shizuo told him, and it didn’t sound like he was mocking Izaya for what he tried to strive for, more that he knew something about Izaya and having him deny this aspect was insulting. “We both know that you broke a few times, that you crossed a line, that you have contacts with people underground. I’m quite aware of what is going on half the time.”

“Yes, Shizu-chan, half the time you understand, but the other half...the comprehension of my decisions and what I do is not of your concern.”

“So you become...what? Some boring tech worker in a firm just to get by?” Shizuo asked, shaking his head.

“Out of all the people I’ve known in my life, I didn’t think you’d be the one who wanted me to head back underground,” Izaya said, chuckling at the absurdity. Why did this monster always do things the opposite of what he wanted.

“You’d be less suspicious.”

“You have the wrong inclinations of what I do, Shizu-chan, if anything, the job I managed to gain is safer than the business dealings of sketchy organizations,” Izaya pushed away from the railing and gripping the handle of his switchblade, “it only depends if I care enough, and currently, I’ve wanted to change the aspect of my everyday, not just because I’m aware of what I’m able to do. So, instead of being confused about where I work and who I talk too, maybe you should focus on your time spent not thinking about what I do.”

Shizuo stared at him for a moment longer, and Izaya was almost afraid that they might end up staring at each other for too long. 

“What’s with the knife?” he asked in a flat tone.

Izaya flipped the knife closed and tucked it inside his pocket, giving Shizuo a smile. “Old habits die hard.” Then he walked past Heiwajima Shizuo without feeling the pain of his fist like he had when they were teens, spitting out blood, and relishing in the euphoria of the pain. 

Izaya simply walked back home. He had time to think of what Shizuo thought about him, and maybe all that paranoia had caught up to him after sniffing him out earlier in the morning. It didn’t matter, Izaya wanted a few things in life, and maybe he’d end up going down the path he was meant to walk, but for now, he was okay with what he was currently doing with his simple life.

**Author's Note:**

> I added bits of Izaya's actual personality throughout the fic until it comes down to Shizuo. I mean, he's obviously intelligent and I'm not, so I tried to make his dialogue sound eloquent. It's the reason why there's not much at the beginning, he's toning down his actual personality. :) _(Of course, I'm kind of an asshole irl, so I usually talk back to people in a certain way.)_ Maybe in the future, I'll flesh this story out, but right now, I just wanted to quickly write another fic with Izaya & Shizuo _(mostly Izaya.)_
> 
> Oh, uh, I have pictures of dead fish in my phone _(some birds)_...and Izaya hates dead fish or at least the eyes, and I would poke their eyes whenever I went shopping _(they had plastic over them so no worries.)_
> 
> I hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciated!!


End file.
